Part of the Self Publishing World!

I have officially become part of the self publishing world!

If anyone has been following me for some time now, they'll know that I have been writing and submitting books to publish since about 2010. My first publisher was Dreamspinner Press and they will always remain my first and foremost top choice when it comes to who I submit my manuscripts to. But there has been a couple of stories that were not accepted by DSP, which I located another company for back in 2011. Most of you know that company as the 'Publisher Who Shall Not Be Named' but I know of it as Silver Publishing. Of course, many authors, reviewers, and other publishing companies are well aware of the disaster and shit storm Silver Publishing became.

Silver accepted two of my stories back then, Swift's Temptation and Fragments of a Unicorn's Soul. While these two didn't do as well as the other stories I have through DSP, they did still receive some traction. Unfortunately, I only received a little bit of the royalties before the proverbial shit hit the fan and I stopped receiving my checks. After that, I didn't do anything with them for a while and eventually I debated on self publishing them. 

However, even though I had covers made up for them, I did not. I went with yet another small company that didn't last long, though I did receive my royalties however brief that was. Then again, the idea of self publishing came up. But I decided to reach out to a large, well known, well established company. I hadn't heard the rumors floating around because I hadn't been paying attention. I didn't take the warning I received via private message seriously either and moved forward with publishing them through another company known as Torquere Press. 

Yet AGAIN I had the same problem. I received two checks and BOOM! SHIT MEET FAN. These two stories seem to be jinxed when it comes to putting them up with a publishing company. So I have finally decided ENOUGH is ENOUGH. I have gone the self publishing route. I have started with Swift's Temptation (Smashwords Link) so far. Right now, it is only available on Smashwords.com as I have just uploaded it this morning and it is still going through the approval process, but eventually it will be available through the usual sites that they offer it on, such as Kobo, B&N, Amazon, etc. 

I am working on formatting and getting Fragments of a Unicorn's Soul ready for your consideration as well as another short Valentine's Day story that I had included in an anthology about three to four years ago that was only available for about a year. Currently I am having a cover made for that one and it is called Champagne Kisses. Once they are available I will of course let you all know. 

But I feel so very accomplished at being able to get these up there on my own and being able to control these on my own. It's amazing and definitely made my day to see the first one up on Smashwords. If you've already ready it, maybe help by spreading the word to others who haven't? Word of mouth is the best compliment a writer can receive. :) 

Lots more to come soon! 

~Kisses~

J.R.